OSPF Network Design Solutions, Second Edition

Standard Area Design

Standard, or nonstub, OSPF areas carry a default route, static routes, intra-area routes, and external routes. The use of standard areas is more resource intensive within an OSPF network. However, standard areas are also the most common, and they carry inter-area routes. Characteristics of standard areas are as follows:

• An area must be a standard area when it contains a router that uses both OSPF and any other protocol, such as the Routing Information Protocol (RIP). Such a router is known as an Autonomous System Boundary Router (ASBR).

• An area must also be a standard area when a virtual link is configured across the area. This is because the various types of stub areas are not allowed to have virtual links in them. See “ ...